Right, wrong, indifferent, Steve Jobs is an interesting person. This audio recording from Apple’s Q4 earnings call yesterday is no exception.
Listen To Steve Jobs Rip Into Android And The Upcoming Tablet Competition [Audio]
Interesting to me is the definition of “open” he uses, which makes sense if you’re Apple. Obviously, Google defines “open” as something different, to their own benefit. It’s rather funny to hear each side define and redefine what that word means.
Andy Rubin (@arubin) has some clarification for Senor Jobs on what open is:
In the end, consumers vote with their wallets, and many (like me) have voted for both. I do find the holy war between Android and iOS fascinating too, especially since the major players were chums so recently.
Update: I’m not the only one who noticed Steve’s wordsmithing. Matt over at Signal vs. Noise, the 37Signals blog, has a post the covering the subtleties behind the “open vs. closed” and “fragmented vs. integrated” word choices (h/t Hacker News).
This is a fascinating bit of wordplay that will bounce around the intertubes for a while. It’s going to be interesting.
Twitter Comment
Listen to Steve Jobs Wordsmith [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
I suspect, with Apple’s aversion to “adult” themed material in the AppStore, censorship-free access will be the distinguishing definer of “open” in the marketplace. Most people really don’t care whether they can access some OS source code. They will care (or can be persuaded to care) that their activities are subject to ‘approval’, that they are free to do anything that Steve Jobs lets them do.
Let’s be honest, open/closed and fragmented/integrated don’t matter to most people. As I’ve said before, it’s all about the carriers bc they have people by the wallets. Cost dictates choice here, not features, or openness or integration.I suspect even the which is better question, iOS vs. Android, wouldn’t fall either way with average users. In many ways, that argument is tainted by effort invested and the cost of relearning, just like any OS, plus the cost of buying (or re-buying) apps.This is really a nerd fight for the media and shareholders.